Spartan Christianity

Absolution – Removal of Unnecessary Guilt

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”
1 John 1:9

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”
Romans 5:1

Absolution is the freedom from guilt of past wrongdoings.

The guilt is removed from the mind, never to be seen again. Absolution is possible through our faith, yet so many Christians are obsessed with feeling guilty because they think that emotional guilt or feeling bad about themselves somehow makes them more righteous or that God will have more compassion on them. Nothing they think is logical. The average church goer in the 21st century knows nothing about the God he claims to obey.

We have been given the freedom from guilt so that we will not be negatively affected by that guilt in our lives. God remembers our sin no more, it is completely forgotten, and we should view our evil in the same way. What weak people tend to do is focus so much on how “bad and evil” they are that they never actually improve their lives by changing their actions. They think it is enough to simply feel guilt, but action is also necessary. They are addicted to the emotional feeling of guilt. Guilt is worthless if we are not moving to improve ourselves constantly.

Absolution is a mental tool for improvement as well as a spiritual tool for salvation.

It is a mental tool in that we use it to avoid becoming bogged down in our guilt and shame, and instead we can turn our minds to the measurable progress of character. We are not constantly obsessed with what we did wrong but rather we are obsessed with improving. Absolution gives men the freedom of mind and conscience to work on their character instead of becoming paralyzed by their mountain of sin.

Mantra

My guilt is washed away and I feel it no more.

Application

Reject the lie propagated in the religious world that you need guilt, regret and shame in order to “be a good Christian” or improve. Christ did not die so that you could sit around feeling sorry for yourself. God has freed us from these negative, destructive and unproductive emotions.

No Christian man is ever required to have specific feelings and emotions in order to be righteous, that would be too much to ask of humanity. Not everyone is emotionally happy about all the commands of God, but that is the point, these commands must be kept regardless of how we feel.

We have been freed from the guilt of our sin. Therefore, if guilt remains it is because we have not conquered it in the mind. We must turn our minds to thoughts that will slowly chip away at the remainder of our unnecessary guilt. We have to consciously think, “There is no need to feel guilt. What is this guilt accomplishing in and of itself? Nothing. Therefore, I reject my own guilt. I am absolved from guilt and have no obligation to entertain it in my mind any longer”.

Over time the guilt will fade as we realize the truth of absolution. Once we are no longer wasting time by having regular guilt trips and pity parties, we can begin construction on the character we must possess as men. Guilt without action is worthless. So remove all guilt from your mind.

Center your thoughts on manhood.

Do not entertain unnecessary emotions.

Control your thoughts.

Conduct yourselves like men.

Discretion – Social Wisdom

“Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman without discretion.”
Proverbs 11:22

“My son, do not lose sight of these— keep sound wisdom and discretion,”
Proverbs 3:21

“Discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you.”
Proverbs 2:11

Before we begin, let’s define terms. Discretion is the “quality of behaving or speaking in such a way as to avoid causing offense or revealing private information.” Another definition of discretion is “the freedom to decide what should be done in a particular situation.” Based on these definitions, it is easy to see why discretion is a valuable character trait of an individual.

A man who avoids unnecessary conflict is wise and strategic.

This is not to say that we should avoid all conflict or shy away from telling truths that will cause offense, but we should be wise about how and when we present those truths. Truths should not be sugar coated, but they also should not be forced down the throat of people, even if they desperately need to hear them. You must slowly work on the minds of others instead of ramming your philosophies into their head with warlike attacks. To behave with discretion is to be diplomatic and wise. While there is certainly a time for attrition warfare, maneuver warfare is typically preferred when strategizing and engaging in small-scale social wars.

Discretion used righteously is one of the many fruits of wisdom.

Unrighteous discretion is a tremendous evil, and it operates under the illusion that no one will find out about the sin. Prostitutes offer “discrete services”, yet you still have a certain probability of getting caught by the police and being a sex offender for the rest of your life. Evil is never fully discrete, there is always the possibility that your evil will find you out. This indiscretion would then cause a massive stir in your church and in your community, causing offense and eliminating all semblance of past discretion. This small possibility should not be merely a source of fear, but it should be an additional motivator for righteousness.

Mantra

Be conscious of every action taken.

Application

It is hard to be discreet while running on mental autopilot. We must be cognizant of the way we act and of the situations around us if we are to behave with wisdom and discretion. The discrete man does not gossip and spread rumors, for he knows those rumors could circle back to him and bring him shame.

The discrete man does not reveal secrets and spread the sins of others. He does not deceive others, because he knows that he himself can be deceived by others as well. The discrete man is quiet, he does not actively seek out occasion to open his mouth, for he understands that the more words he speaks, the greater the chance that he will say something wrong.

The discrete man is conscious of his reputation at all times, taking into account how his deeds will alter the way others think of him because he knows that reputation is everything.

This man prepares his responses to all queries in advance, so that he reduces the chance of being caught off guard. The discrete man conducts himself with the utmost of masculinity at all times. Men must use discretion as a tool, as an instrument of wisdom.

Be aware of your actions.

Be mindful in all your interactions with other people.

View yourself as a man.

Conduct yourselves like men.

Glory – The Mark of High Achievement

“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 3:18

The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one”
John 17:22

Weak males in the religious world avoid talking about glory for two primary reasons. One is that they have never experienced any glory in their own lives. People always hate the things they cannot or have not experienced. Two: They mistakenly associate glory with pride.

If men in the religious world want to take a pseudo-moral stand against any idea or mentality, they label it as “pride”. Pride is the “all-purpose sin” that is just vague enough to cover anything that low-achievement religious men do not like. It is your responsibility to not be like these men in this way. They are thinking wrongly about glory and success. If glory is prideful, these men have justified being losers. If glory and success are amoral, however, then there is nothing that can be attacked with morality. Think of glory the same way you think of money: an amoral tool or the world.

A man can never do great work and be rewarded for it in the eyes of low-achievement men, any glory equates to pride in their minds.

The reality is that glory makes men who have accomplished nothing feel insignificant or inferior, so they have no choice but to label that glory as arrogance. Glory is not arrogance, it is a reward for doing something well.

If someone is more successful than you, they simply made different decisions than you.

Glory is also closely related to being praised. It is the result of high achievement. Glory is to be earned in life and it is not arrogant or selfish to seek it out. You should always be aiming to accomplish things with your life, and glory will come as a byproduct of that effort.

“Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before kings and not unknown men” –
Proverbs 22:29

For those who never attain glory on the earth, the afterlife is filled with glory for the way you maintained the faith here on earth. It is our mission to make it to that glory without becoming sidetracked by the thoughts of how boring heaven might be when described by many people. This itself is a tool of the devil.

Mantra

To live is glory, to die is glory.

Application

Aim high in your life. Do not use your Christianity as an excuse to be pathetic in your career and in your personal life. If you are truly doing your work “as to the Lord and not as unto men” (Ephesians 6:6-7), then you will certainly attain glory, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Rid your mind of the wrongful propaganda that you have heard your whole life: people who receive honors are not arrogant.

People in the religious world can only accuse them of arrogance because none of them have ever achieved anything in their own lives.

Aim higher than you think you are capable of achieving, because you can do much more than you think you can.

Win the wars of your mind and accept the glory that comes with your accomplishments. Do not let the ego take over, avoid allowing your accomplishments to make you feel more important than you are. If you can command your ego in the midst of great accomplishment, you have mastered an important part of your character.

Accept glory, but never become complacent in your past achievements. You must always be improving, working towards something new, something that will bring additional glory or success.

It is not wrong to be successful and do not listen to anyone who says otherwise.

Work hard.

Focus on what matters.

Be great at everything you do by concentrating your work ethic into it and by doing it unto the Lord and not unto man.

Win the battle over ego.

Command yourself and your mind as a general commands his men.

Conduct yourselves like men.

Forge Your Own Path

For whatever you think, believe and do in life, you must forge your own path.

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”.
Philippians 2:12

So many men in the church have grown up their whole lives simply accepting whatever dogma was given to them by their parents. They never question a single drip of the doctrine that is passed down from generation to generation. Even if what they are being told is right, this mental laziness is wrong.

It is of extreme importance for every young man to forge his own path and uncover what it is he truly believes.

Every man has the responsibility of examining everything he knows and seeing if it is really true. As mentioned in an earlier section, one of the finest examples of the refusal to forge one’s own path is the Baptist mantra, “Born a Baptist, Live as a Baptist, Die as a baptist”. The emphasis here, therefore, is not on discovering what the truth is, but rather is focused on maintaining a personal label that one has invested in for years. That mentally shows that many men are not interested in having a logical “answer for the reason for the hope within them” (1 Peter 3:15), but instead are interested in living a life based on emotions. This mantra says, “Even if I am shown viewpoints that oppose my own and that may actually have merit, I will not give up my man-made, denominational name for the sake of truth”.

The masculine man is one who does not blindly accept what he has been told his entire life.

Instead he scrutinizes everything that he is told just like the Noble Bereans (Acts 17:11). He first examines the validity of the Creationist arguments and compares them to the evolutionist arguments. He then compares Bible-based Christianity to all other religions to see which is true based on fact. Finally, he compares what is taught in the Bible to what is taught in the various “flavors” of Christianity and chooses the one he can prove best fits what the Bible has to say. This is what it means to forge your own path. A man must have his own personal, intrinsic reasons for believing and behaving in specified ways.

The masculine man rejects the typical mental laziness of so many in the religious world and instead he “works out his own salvation”. You must ensure that you are that man and that you are never falling into the trap of mental complacency.

Mantra

I have a reason for everything I believe.

Application

It is of great importance that you deconstruct everything you believe, breaking it down to the most fundamental levels in order to determine why you believe it. You need to be able to explain your own position with good reasoning rather than with emotionalism or traditionalism. This starts by answering the most fundamental questions of reality:

Why do you believe in a God?Explain why do you believe in the God of the Bible?
Why are you a Christian instead of a Muslim/Hindu/Buddhist etc.?
Why are you a specific “Type” of Christian (Church of Christ/Baptist/Methodist/Catholic etc.)? Can you defend your position as a Christian with logic?

Once you answer these big-picture questions, you can begin to answer all the smaller questions:

Why did God command this behavior?
For what cause did God instruct His people to take these specific military actions?
Why does God operate in the ways that He does throughout the Bible? (Etc.)

For every question you have in your own mind, you need a clear answer. If you don’t think you will know how to answer a question someone might ask you, then you need to do some deep thinking and find a good answer. It is not enough to simply do something because you have always been taught to do it. You need your own reasons.

A masculine man forges his own path, character and philosophies from the foundation of logical thinking.

He is able to answer questions rationally, not emotionally. The masculine man is stoic and is concerned with the answer to the question “What is truth?”. He is not concerned with the answer to the question “Who is right?”

You have a responsibility to be this rational, masculine man. It is imperative that you have your own reasons for everything you do and you must never take anything at face value. A man is never excused from the responsibility of using his own rational mind to discover what is truth and, more importantly, to “work out his own salvation with fear and trembling”.

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.

Hell – The Myth of The Physical

There is no subject the church is more popular for than hell. In the modern day, the talk of hell has slowed down because no one wants to “get their hands dirty” and speak about the punishment that awaits the evil. On the few occasions that we do hear about hell, it is almost never correct. Men speak about “burning in hell”, as if hell will be physical fire and physical pain. The fact that people think hell will be a literal burning sensation shows how little they are willing to think critically about the Word of God.

“But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
Revelation 21:8

“And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Matthew 25:46

No man knows what the afterlife will be like, but we can deduce from scripture some fundamental truths.

We know that, according to scripture, we will cast off the physical body for a more perfect spiritual body. If this is the case, what will be left that can experience physical pain? We have no more nerves, our pain receptors are done away with, therefore we could not possibly feel the same physical pain that we feel on the earth.

What is left is spiritual pain that affects the spiritual body. Spiritual pain must be much deeper and more painful, because the only way to describe it is to compare it to the pain of being burned with fire, one of the most painful experiences known to man.

This is done in the same way that heaven is told to have streets of gold and jewels and precious metals everywhere. Do you think this is the literal description of how heaven will be? Will heavenly roads be lined with physical gold right off the periodic table of elements? Probably not, but this biblical illustration is an analogy to help us visualize how glorious heaven is by using materials we are already familiar with and appreciate. So also, the pain of hell is made real in our minds by comparing it with the forms of pain we already understand: fire

For this reason, hell is a spiritual pain, and will likely be worse than being on fire, but who can truly know before they get there?

The key for us to never find out what it is like, this is done by acting like men and taking noble and righteous action each day. We can avoid the entire debate of whether or not hell is a physical burning or what the pain is like by simply choosing not to go there. We choose not to go to hell with our actions and the way we conduct ourselves, which is why it is not redundant to continue to remind you to Conduct Yourself Like a Man.

Mantra

Avoid the Spiritual death, act with righteousness.

Hell. Fire — **Not** What Hell Will Be Like

Application

Rather than being burned by the fires of hell, use the reality of eternal punishment as a motivator to continue to press you towards what is right. There will be many times in life where doing what is right is not convenient and not fun, but the reminder of consequences for our actions keeps us on the path.

In contrast, it is damaging to the mind to only be motivated by wanting to avoid punishment, but this is where many Christians find themselves.

Heaven does not sound that appealing to many Christians, but hell sounds horrible, so we do what is right as men and stay on the straight and narrow (Matthew 7:14). We must retrain our mind to desire heaven and also want to avoid hell. When we combine both of these motivations into one, we are much more efficient and mentally stable.

Correct the thoughts that enter your mind by becoming aware of them, and then by redirecting them.

You own your mind, you tell it what you want it to think.

You must command yourself into a better pattern of thinking.

Act with strength and determination.

Gather all power into your mind.

Master your thinking.

Crush the enemy.

Conduct yourself like Men.

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